Do not forget that mortgage payments and taxes are interlinked.
Assuming a $4,841 take home / month as you mentioned, anybody paying greater than 50% of it in effective rent (i.e. mortgage payments after being discounted by tax effect)is setting themselves up for a disaster.
Picking half of it, say $2400 per month will result in a home value of 445K at 6% interest rate, 1.02% property taxes, $3000 housing related expenses per year (insurance, etc.) and assuming 20% down.
So, any family grossing $100K that buys a home valued more than $445K is one small financial emergency away (like a loss of job etc. or worse) from being in trouble. They are essentially betting on the fact that nothing out of ordinary will ever happen to them for the next few years.
Given that the median income in this county is less than $100K, what is the median house price again?
